What an Inspector Would Ask For

Punch records get examined in a wage claim, a data protection query, and occasionally a labour inspection. Each asks for something different.

A wage claim

The punch record for a named person over a period.

Every refusal, with its cause and accuracy figure.

Every correction, who approved it and when.

What was paid against what was recorded.

The radius in force at the time, because a boundary change alters what was possible.

If refusals were not logged, you cannot answer the central question — whether the app was refusing when the person says it was.

A data protection query

The lawful basis, with the balancing test written out.

The impact assessment, dated before deployment.

What the app collects and what permission it requests.

Retention per category, and evidence that deletion ran.

Who has access, and the access log.

Consultation records, where required.

A labour inspection

Records of hours worked, which the punch data supports.

Rest breaks, where the system records them.

Evidence that workers can see their own records.

Evidence that failures did not result in unpaid time, which is the question that connects this system to the inspection.

What cannot be produced afterwards

Refusals, if only successes were stored.

The accuracy figure at the moment of a punch.

The radius as it was two years ago, if changes were not versioned.

Whether the worker was shown the notice, if delivery was not recorded.

Each is cheap to capture continuously and impossible to reconstruct, which is the whole argument for doing it as habit.

The self-audit

Take three disputed or flagged punches from last quarter.

Reconstruct each: what was attempted, what the system did, what was corrected, what was paid.

Time it.

Whatever you cannot answer, an inspector or a claimant's representative would also be unable to answer — which means the dispute turns on their account rather than on your records.

What to keep permanently available

Radius history per site, with dates.

Configuration history, including which features were enabled and when.

The notice, versioned, with delivery records.

Consultation and assessment documents.

Version the radius history

A small record with a large consequence.

Each site, each radius, with the date it changed.

Because a dispute about a punch two years ago cannot be assessed without knowing what the boundary was then.

One line per change, kept indefinitely, and it costs nothing until the moment it is the only thing that answers the question.

Check the difficult case

Use this team example to frame one representative test. The useful evidence is the record created when an employee corrects an entry and an administrator exports it.

Independent reference

For an external point of reference, see the Information Commissioner's Office. Use this established source as an external check before turning the principle into a workplace rule.